In general, various genes are related to human diseases and conditions, and in particular, for diseases of which cause is unknown, a method for finding related genes by using a technique such as gene screening method for knocking out the function of the related genes under many conditions and solving the diseases is sought for.
The effect of medicine in such screening is known to appear most significantly in change of localization of protein in a cell. Therefore, a method for quantitatively evaluating localization of protein according to individual screening is sought for, and for example, high content screening systems for performing analysis from fluorescence microscope images of cells have been developed.
In order to perform such screening, it is necessary to take an image of a culture vessel capable of cultivation under many conditions such as a microwell plate. An apparatus integrally including a microscope and analysis software is also known (for example, see Patent Literature 1). In high content screening performed by this apparatus, in a region of a cell nucleus which is segmented in image processing, a designated region centered at a predetermined point is adopted as a region of analysis target, which is analyzed.
By the way, a living body is divided into various sections by epitheliums, and a cell adhesion structure existing in each section has a barrier function for controlling passage of substance between cells and organs. The cell adhesion structure is important for maintaining a form of organs such as blood vessels, and is also useful for maintaining the environment in the ecology.
The abnormality of the barrier function may cause various diseases concerning skin, liver, kidney, and the like, and it has been revealed that it is also related to invasion of cancer and passage of white blood cells, and clarifying the mechanism of the cell adhesion structure is attracting attention.
With recent studies, protein condensed in tTJ (tricellular tight junction) which is a portion where three cells are in contact with each other has been discovered, and it is suggested that this plays an important role in the intensity of cell adhesion. For example, the protein condensed in tTJ includes tricellulin, LSR (Lipolysis stimulated lipoprotein receptor), and the like.
It is desired to find the detailed function of the protein condensed in such tTJ and develop evaluation method. More specifically, for example, a method and the like is desired to quantitatively evaluate the phenomenon that the intensity of cell adhesion is reduced because of changes of the localization of the protein existing in tTJ by causing medicine to take effect.